This invention relates to currency acceptors, and particularly to apparatus for receiving and validating banknotes and/or coins.
The performance of a currency acceptor or validator, or a transaction apparatus such as a vending machine which contains a currency validator, can vary as a result of many factors. It is generally not possible to predict accurately various aspects of performance, such as how many currency items (e.g. banknotes or coins) will be received by the validator, how many of them will be accepted and how many rejected, how often the apparatus will run out of change, etc. Accordingly, if the behaviour of the apparatus is not optimum, it is generally difficult to recognise this. If performance deteriorates it can be a considerable time before this is perceived, and then the cause of deterioration may not be apparent.
An example of this is that the apparatus may start to reject an increasing proportion of genuine banknotes of a particular denomination. Because many genuine banknotes of this denomination are accepted, it is not immediately obvious that a problem has arisen. It may be assumed that any rejections are due to the use of counterfeits or banknotes in poor condition. There may therefore be some considerable delay before the problem is recognised. Then, it may be assumed that the apparatus is faulty, in which case there will be a further delay before the apparatus is tested and, if necessary, repaired.
This circumstance can arise if banknotes of a particular denomination exist in different versions having slightly different characteristics, for example because they are made by different mints, or if the precise characteristics of the currency change due to a change in the manufacturing process. The characteristics of one version of the banknotes may be sufficiently different from the expected characteristics that the banknotes are more likely to be rejected. This may not happen frequently, if only a small proportion of banknotes are of this particular version. Accordingly, the problem may not be recognised quickly. When a genuine banknote is rejected, although the apparatus may not be at fault, it may be perceived as being faulty. Even after the problem has been noted, further difficulties would arise in collecting the rejected banknotes in sufficient quantities to analyse their characteristics so that the problem can be solved by reconfiguring the acceptor.
Corresponding problems of non-genuine currency being erroneously accepted may also occur if a new type of counterfeit is brought into use.
It would be desirable at least to mitigate these and other problems.